I've been going through some of the levels and certificates.
It's interesting to see the groupings within the Advagato
community, with separate clusters producing "Master" levels.
This has been my strongest confirmation that the Advogato
model is capable of expressing complex behaviour.
Independent communities are able to form, rather than being
mushed into the site owner's personal preferences. I don't
think the current presentation will scale well, but the core
concept appears more than sound.

On a different topic, I have enjoyed using free
software
and
it's made my computing experience worthwhile through the
Microsoft years, so I had already decided to write and
release code under the GPL as a way of contributing back
some small part of what I have received.

However, I was more than a little nervous about
doing so
as
I imagined my inbox flooded with various complaints,
insults, and ungrateful abuse from the typical Anonymous
Coward. It's hard to look forwards to being on the wrong end
of the shit stick but I'm used to that sort of thing so it
didn't worry me too much. Just not really that much of an
incentive, really.

I'm also so sick of hearing people write their
opinions
about Open Source or Free Software or whatever political
issue is the hot topic of the day. I realise that there is a
need for these issues to be rehashed over and over again,
but I'd really rather just exist within the community
without having to talk about it all the time. Nobody talks
about air and breathing all the time - we just do it!
Instead of a flow of assertions like "Code Must Be Free!",
I'd really much rather read about personal experiences.

For this reason, I certified rakholh as a Master
when I
read
his article The Thrill of
OpenSource Programming, which gave me a
positive insight into what it is like to participate in this
adventure. After reading his account, I want to be a part of
this experience, rather than just trying to satisfy
obligations. I dunno about his code, but it was one of the
best reasons to be here that I've read.

In a way, our greatest scientists have all been
documenters.
They explore their surroundings and write documentation
about their understanding of nature. Einstein looked at
light and wrote the General Theory of Relativity. What is
this famous body of text, other than documentation?

The Gnome developers are creating a new universe
of
code,
and the documenters are our scientists, providing the
footholds the rest of us need to understand this strange new
world. There's really no such thing as "only the guy who
does the documents".

Updated: Changed my certification of rakholh to
Journeyer to match his expectations. Original comments still
stand though. :)